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Happy Thanksgiving!

Some good eats, fond memories, and reflections on all The Dispatch crew is thankful for this year.

Happy Wednesday! It goes without saying that we’re thankful for all of you, our readers and members. We’re also grateful for a few days of rest—we’ll be back in your inboxes on Monday! 

And if you’re looking to get a leg up on your holiday shopping on Black Friday, The Dispatch has you covered. 

This week, you can upgrade your membership to Dispatch Premium and unlock more reporting, more analysis, and more interaction with Dispatch reporters and editors at a special Black Friday discount. Use the code BLACKFRIDAY to take $25 off a premium membership

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that Lebanon and Israel had agreed to a U.S.-brokered deal to end the latter’s war with Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group that began firing on Israel in solidarity with Hamas after its October 7 attack. The ceasefire, which Biden said is designed to produce a “permanent cessation” of hostilities, went into effect today at 4 a.m. local time. Under the agreement, the Lebanese Army will take measures to prevent Hezbollah from regrouping and rearming south of the Litani river, near Israel’s border. Over a period of 60 days, meanwhile, the Israeli military will gradually withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon. Biden also said that Israel retains the right to defend itself if the agreement is violated, and he added that the U.S., working with France and other allies, will provide the “necessary assistance” to ensure the deal is fully implemented, though he ruled out any U.S. troops being deployed. 
  • President-elect Donald Trump announced Monday that he would impose a 25 percent across-the-board tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico beginning on his first day in office, January 20. “This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country,” he wrote on Truth Social. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a letter on Tuesday that Trump’s tariffs would spur retaliatory measures from Mexico that would hurt U.S. companies—she mentioned several American auto manufacturers by name. “Why endanger them with tariffs that would harm both nations?” she wrote. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he spoke with Trump on Monday night after the announcement, saying “it was a good call,” but not providing any new details on the tariffs.
  • Russia’s defense ministry said Tuesday that Ukraine had struck targets inside Russia with U.S.-made ATACMS long-range missiles twice in the past three days. The ministry said that an air defense system and airbase were hit in the Russian region of Kursk, where Ukraine is currently attempting to hold territory. It also said that “retaliatory actions are being prepared.” Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials reported on Tuesday that Russia had launched a record-breaking overnight attack on Ukraine involving 188 drones, the majority of which were thwarted.
  • Russian authorities on Tuesday expelled a British diplomat working in Moscow after the Russian foreign ministry accused him of engaging in espionage. “This is not the first time that Russia has made malicious and baseless accusations against our staff,” a British foreign office spokesman said Tuesday. In August, Russia expelled six British diplomats from the country, also on grounds of alleged spying. 
  • A rocket in development by the Japan Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) caught fire during a test on Tuesday. The Epsilon S rocket’s second-stage engine exploded 49 seconds into the test, dealing a blow to the country’s efforts to develop a commercially viable satellite launch vehicle through JAXA. Japan’s first fully private spaceflight company, Space One, also conducted a failed satellite launch in March of this year. 

Happy Thanksgiving From The Dispatch 

Stuffed Turkey for Thanksgiving Holidays with Pumpkin, Peas, Pecan, Berry Pie, and Other Ingredients
Stuffed Turkey for Thanksgiving Holidays with Pumpkin, Peas, Pecan, Berry Pie, and Other Ingredients

After five years of The Dispatch, TMD’s holiday editions are time-honored traditions. There will be lots of news to unpack on Monday, but today, we’d like to take a few moments to reflect on all we’re grateful for—and give you some last-minute recipe ideas. 

Mary Trimble, Morning Dispatch Editor: After this wild ride of a year, I’m extremely thankful for Steve and Declan, who trusted me with TMD, and even more so for the incredible team that makes the Morning Dispatch happen every day. This job would be much tougher if I didn’t have people to send my mediocre memes to, or who happily reciprocate with funny tweets, and superior memes, of their own. I never take it for granted that my fellow Dispatchers are such wonderful people who are, to a person, a joy to work with. With a year and a half in D.C. under my belt, I’m also grateful for the community I’ve started to build here—my church, my Dispatch crew, and my friends all across the city who are willing to be flexible around my strange hours to hang out with me. 

This year I’m grateful that I’m spending Thanksgiving with my grandmother and extended family in Louisiana, and I’m thinking about my parents and siblings overseas. I wouldn’t be anywhere without my incredible parents—the best in the world—who share in my joy and in my worries and offer their words of wisdom. (Read: They tolerate my belly-aching and kindly but firmly put things in perspective for me when required.) And I’m so thankful for my incredible siblings who are clever, funny, kind, and way cooler than I. Shoutout to my brother for giving me helpful information about the importance of sleep at the height of campaign season.  

Grayson Logue, Morning Dispatch Deputy Editor: It was quite a year—and especially a summer—of news. I’m so grateful to have covered 2024 while working on a fantastic team at a first-rate publication. It’s pretty awesome to be able to spend most of my time thinking about the best ways to tackle the most important and complex stories and then go execute that with the TMD team. We’ve written about how the TMD sausage is made before, but it bears repeating that our guiding light is reporting and explaining the news with the context we ourselves would want as readers, which makes each new story a delight to explore.  

And that work is entirely downstream of the support and engagement from our readers. The whole team had a wonderful time connecting with so many of you at the Dispatch Summit earlier this month. We’re looking forward to meeting more of you at future events! Thank you for continuing to put your trust in us—we don’t take it for granted.   

Finally, a big shoutout to the City of Brotherly Love! Audrey and I moved to Philly this spring and have been so thankful for the community we’ve found here. We’re particularly grateful for the foster parents who saved our pittie Lola the day before she was scheduled to be put down. 

A Thanksgiving Drinking Plan

Prep work: Depending on when you eat, Thanksgiving morning to early afternoon involves a lot of work in the kitchen or at least a lot of time waiting for the work in the kitchen to be done. You don’t want to fill up before the big meal, but you also might need a few calories. Hence, the liquid lunch (or breakfast, no judgment here). I recommend a winter ale—you can’t go wrong with a Sam Adams Holiday White ale—or if you want something more robust, a porter or stout.  

Light and breezy prelude:  As you approach the actual start of the meal, an aperitivo is the perfect way to begin. Try a classic like an Americano or a Negroni Sbagliato if you prefer. Really any kind of spritz works—using a darker amaro like Cynar or Averna produces a great wintry-tasting drink. You could also simply pair your favorite vermouth with some ice and club soda and garnish with a lemon twist and an olive, which makes for one of my favorite pre-dinner beverages. 

During the meal:  You’ll want a drink that works with you as you’re going back for seconds and thirds, so usually the lighter the better. This could be still or sparkling water. It could be a light wine. Go with your gut on this one, literally. 

Homestretch pick-me-up: You might need a little help as you’re fighting—or perhaps rousing from—a tryptophan-induced, post-meal nap. Enter the coffee cocktail. I’m a newcomer to these but fast becoming a convert thanks to my favorite coffee shop/bar in my area, Char and Stave. This whiskey company turned coffee roaster has a fantastic menu of coffee cocktails. I try to rip off their coffee Old Fashioned at home with the below recipe, which would go great with that extra slice of pumpkin pie.

Ingredients: 

  • 2 oz. of your favorite bourbon
  • 0.5 oz. of coffee liqueur (Char and Stave’s is delicious) 
  • Two teaspoons of maple syrup (can add more or less to taste)
  • Angostura bitters and orange bitters
  • Orange peel

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled and diluted to taste—using a spare bar spoon or a straw to taste a drop as you’re stirring is an easy way to check your dilution. Strain into a glass with a large rock. Express the orange peel over the top and drop it in. Enjoy! 

James Sutton, Morning Dispatch Reporter: I’m very grateful, first of all, for being able to start work at The Dispatch during what is, at the very least, an interesting time in American politics. It’s also an interesting time in American media, and I’m glad that I’m working at a publication with a business model that is values-driven, innovative, and sustainable. I really do think that The Dispatch exemplifies the best of what the internet and new media is capable of. 

It’s also been a bit of a whirlwind past 12 months for me, moving from Philadelphia to Oxford and then back across the pond to Washington. I’m grateful for those three cities, which are all wonderful places in very different ways: Philadelphia’s cultural institutions and strong sense of local identity, Oxford’s jaw-dropping beauty and intense intellectual atmosphere, and D.C.’s always-at-least-engaging political scene.

Finally, I’m most grateful for my family, my wonderful girlfriend (hi Josie, if you’re reading this!), and my friends across the world. I’m also looking forward to returning home for the holidays. I think I speak for most San Franciscans when I say that you can leave the city, but it never really leaves you. Or, as the cliche goes, I left my heart there. Plus, on Christmas, it’s usually around 60 degrees, and how many places can say that! Happy to leave the White Christmases back East.

Declan Garvey, Executive Editor: Using a handful of Sheetz napkins to shovel puke out of the back seat of my car at a rest stop in Breezewood, Pennsylvania, on Monday morning, I’ll admit that “gratitude” was not necessarily top of mind. But I knew I needed to get Mary this Thanksgiving blurb for TMD, so I filled up the tank, got back on I-70, and started thinking. I didn’t have to think too hard.

The origin of the puke—our six-month-old Boykin spaniel puppy, Penny—has been the most wonderful addition to our family since she joined us in July, and there’s nothing quite like the welcome home you get from a dog at the end of a long day at the office. My wife and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary in September, and after several stints of work-related long distance this year, we are on the verge of no longer being separated by an ocean. I’m looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with my parents and younger brothers in Chicago (hence the road trip through Pennsylvania), and several of my closest friends from college have recently moved to Washington for work.

And speaking of work, I get to spend my days talking to, collaborating with, and editing the best team in center-right journalism. I’m thankful for all of our reporters’ hard work throughout the grueling campaign cycle, for our growing business side of the house making sure that work reaches more and more people, and for our stellar editing team that is content to lurk in the shadows but without whom none of the magic happens. 

And of course, our readers and listeners—particularly those of you who’ve been with us from the jump. Celebrating five years of The Dispatch in October was really special, and we wouldn’t have been able to do so without all the support for what we’re trying to build. I’m biased, of course, but I’m really glad this place exists.

Luis Parrales, Associate Editor, Arts & Culture: There are so many things to be thankful for this year. The Substance, for example, or discovering the German phenomenologist Hartmut Rosa, or the fact that Tottenham Hotspur (aka my Premier League team) beat Aston Villa (aka Alex’s team) 4-1 earlier this month. But I don’t want to repeat things others will probably say. So instead I’ll just mention that I’m deeply thankful for Steve, Jonah, and Dispatch readers for their ongoing commitment to level-headed conservative journalism in our tipsy-turvy times. And for Charles, for only giving me a moderately hard time whenever I show up to a Dispatch Youth function and rave yet again about the wonders of the Long Drink™.  

Peter Gattuso, Fact Checker: For as long as I can remember, our family Thanksgiving never began with the dinner, but with some appetizers and my grandfather’s bloody mary cocktail drinks. (There were even non-alcoholic bloody marys for us kids, though my childhood preference was always the non-alcoholic eggnog). My grandfather’s recipe dates back to at least the Eisenhower administration, though that also meant my grandfather never specified how much of each ingredient to use—when I asked my mom, she recalled that my grandfather always measured ingredients “to taste.” 

Ingredients:

  • Clamato or V8 juice
  • Lemons
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • Curry
  • Dried minced onions
  • Garlic or onion salt
  • Pepperoncini
  • Tabasco sauce
  • Caraway seeds (optional)
  • Green olives
  • Vodka (pepper-infused vodka for extra spiciness)
  • Celery sticks

This recipe is best made in a pitcher. First, pick between Clamato and V8 tomato juice. My grandfather’s original recipe called for V8 juice, though he lamented that V8 had lost its flavor over the years, and he later switched to Clamato. While Clamato also includes clam broth, you won’t detect any seafood flavor in the finished drink. Mix your tomato juice with lemons (about one lemon per person), Worcestershire sauce, curry, dried minced onions, garlic or onion salt, tabasco sauce, and caraway seeds (optional). Then, let the mix settle in the fridge—no set time, though my grandfather generally let it refrigerate for 24 hours. After that, just grab your glass, and throw in ice and your preference of vodka. All that’s left is to drop in two or three green olives, pour your mix from the pitcher, stir with a celery stick, and enjoy!

Victoria Holmes, Associate Audio/Visual Editor: I’m not a cook but a baker. Kitchen enthusiasts will know the difference between the two, that both require different skill sets and intuitions. So, instead of subjecting my family to culinary torture—whether that be accidentally setting food on fire or attempting to gaslight my family into thinking that the celery/egg/butter/flour concoction is in fact gravy—I have settled to bring something sweet.

Below is a shortbread cookie recipe (minus the secret ingredient—I can’t give all my limited tricks away) that will impress and delight. Even without the super secret ingredient, it’s still very tasty. This recipe is PERFECT for cut outs. You have to refrigerate the dough for a few hours first, though. 

Ingredients: 

  • 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (320 grams)
  • A pinch of salt (don’t use sea salt)

Preheat oven to 375 °F

In a standing mixer or with an electric beater, blend butter and sugar until fluffy

Add the egg and vanilla extract

In a separate bowl, mix the flour and salt

Gradually add flour mixture low speed

If you’re going to cut out the dough, transfer dough to a zip lock bag and flatten. Otherwise, just put it in the fridge for at least four hours.

Cut out the dough, or, grab about a child’s handful full of dough and make a little ball, then flatten. You don’t want them too big—think traditional Scottish shortbread.

Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. Check on them at around 12 minutes (I have a crummy oven, so if you have a nice one they should be cooked a bit sooner).

They should be crumbly—that’s how you know they’re finished.

David M. Drucker, Senior Writer: Believe it or not, my family follows up our massive Thanksgiving feast not with eating the delicious leftovers—or better yet, eating nothing at all—but by hitting a BBQ joint for yet more gluttony (and whatever the word is for imbibing gluttonous amounts of adult beverages.) We spend Thanksgiving in New York with my sister’s family, and roughly 10 years ago we were looking for something to do on Friday, the day after the big day, to get out of the house (other than shopping, no thanks) and eat something different. We ended up at Hometown BBQ, in the Redhook neighborhood of Brooklyn, and we’ve been heading there on the evening of Black Friday ever since, lately bracketed by a stop at Sunny’s, one of the oldest watering holes in the city, and Jalopy Tavern for some late-night live music. 

Michael Warren, Senior Editor: Mashed potatoes are one of the more labor-intensive Thanksgiving sides, so you might as well make them as good as possible. For me, that means creamy, so I’ve started simmering my potatoes in milk, rather than boiling them in water. Instead of throwing out this liquid, which contains all this starchy goodness, and then mixing it with heavy cream, you eliminate that step and get a silkier, richer mash. My boys tell me they love these potatoes, and we’ll keep making anything that they’ll eat besides dinner rolls at Thanksgiving. This is an adaptation of Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street recipe. 

Milk-Simmered Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

  • 4 pounds of potatoes (I do half russet, half Yukon gold)
  • 5 cups of whole milk
  • Salt
  • 1 stick of butter, divided into 8 pieces

Peel and dice the potatoes into ½ inch chunks. Using a large stock pot or Dutch oven, add the potatoes, the milk, and two pinches of salt. Bring to a simmer (not a boil), then lower the heat. Simmer uncovered for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring often. When the potato chunks can be easily pierced with a fork, practically falling apart, remove the pot from the heat, add the butter, and mash with a potato masher until the butter is incorporated and the potatoes are sufficiently smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Steve Hayes, CEO: Happy Thanksgiving! I’m grateful for friends and family, for God and His guidance, and, of course, for my hard-working Dispatch colleagues and the Dispatch members who make everything we do possible. Thank you. 

How about something new for your T-giving feast this year? Or a new twist on a T-giving staple? Sure, sure—everyone loves mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving (or pretends to, anyway). With enough butter they can range from tolerable (most mashed potatoes) to excellent (my mom’s mashed potatoes). But I’ve lately been experimenting with another kind of potato and we’re going to give it a Turkey-day try this year: Thanksgiving smashed potatoes on the smoker—or in the oven. 

Ingredients:

  • 2 5 lb bags of The Little Potato Company’s “Little Yellows”
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 stick of salted butter
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 jar of Borsari Tuscan Rosemary Sage Salt
  • 16 oz Daisy Sour Cream

1. Boil potatoes thoroughly to soften. I usually boil for 10-12 minutes.

2. Spread the potatoes across parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Use the bottom of a heavy glass or jar to “smash” the potatoes—literally just push down on the small potatoes to flatten them. None of the potatoes should be touching when you spread them out. 

3. Brush potatoes liberally with olive oil. 

4. Bake or smoke at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

5. Melt 1 stick of butter with one tbsp minced garlic, stir together and brush on potatoes.

6. Bake or smoke for an additional 10 minutes or until potatoes are crunchy. 

Serve hot, with sour cream. Can be eaten with a knife and fork at a more formal setting or just with your hands if it’s a casual T-giving.  

(These are also great for non-Thanksgiving meals and snacks. For a rich and spicy version, I use Tony Cachere’s creole salt, melt cheddar cheese and add lots of pickled jalapenos once I pull them from the smoker.)

Let me know how they turn out if you give them a shot! 

(Editor’s Note: We did not intentionally solicit rival potato recipes from Steve and Mike, but 10 points to anyone who makes them both and tells us who won.) 

Charles Hilu, Reporter: Appropriately, we think a lot about food on Thanksgiving, but as we gather for the holiday feast, we should be careful not to forget to be grateful for our quotidian sustenance. John McCormack helped me on Capitol Hill once in that regard. It was one of my first times reporting there, and John showed me a great lunch hack. In the Senate carryout, you can get a side of chicken salad that’s quite delicious and also filling—for a very reasonable price. That’s just one of the many pieces of mentorship people like John, Mike Warren, Drucker, and Wendy have given me in my eight months at The Dispatch. Through the campaign, Election Day, and now on Capitol Hill, I’ve learned so much from the amazing people here, and they’ve helped me grow as a journalist. I’m thankful, too, for the amazing friends I have made here who always encourage me and make me feel welcome.

I’m also excited to see my family, and we’ll hopefully begin a new Thanksgiving tradition. I’ve become used to seeing my beloved Detroit Lions lose to whatever team they play each year, but this time is different. Coach Dan Campbell has the team exciting the entire city, and the Hilus are no exception. We’re ready to watch them beat the Chicago Bears (sorry, Declan). Let’s hope this year’s expected win leads to many more Thanksgiving victories down the line. (This is going to be really embarrassing if they lose.)

Wendy Lane Cook, Deputy Managing Editor: One of Thanksgiving’s many gifts is the satisfaction of enjoying the leftovers. If you find yourself with a surplus of turkey after the big feast, this soup is a great way to use it up, as well as a healthy antidote to too much stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pie on Thursday.

Leftover Turkey Soup

Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 minced garlic cloves
  • 3 celery stalks, chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled and diced
  • 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
  • 8 cups of chicken broth
  • 1 ½ cups of farfalline or other small pasta
  • 2 cups of diced turkey
  • 2 ½ tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons of lemon zest
  • 1 10-ounce package of baby spinach

Heat the oil in a soup pot, add the onion and garlic, and sauté until the vegetables have softened, about 1 minute. Add the celery, carrots, red bell pepper, and sauté until tender, about 6 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer about 20 minutes. Add the pasta and cook 10 minutes. Mix the turkey, lemon juice and lemon zest into the soup. Add the spinach and cook about 3 minutes, until the spinach is wilted. Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

James Scimecca, Editorial Partnerships Manager: A good punch is a tricky thing—not because you have to be meticulous about the measurements, but because you need to walk that fine line between, “This party is great!” and “tish prtee i sgret …” May I introduce the tried-and-true Scimecca Fall Punch. It’s super simple, super festive, and you can scale the recipe based on the size of your party and their alcohol tolerance. I made this for an early combined Thanksgiving party last weekend to rave reviews from my family and the In-Laws-elect. 

Festive Fall Punch

In a punchbowl with ice, combine:

  • 4 cups apple cider
  • 2 cups pear juice
  • 2 cups cranberry juice
  • 2 cups white rum
  • 1 cup brandy

Slice up two apples, two pears, and an orange and toss them in the bowl. Add cinnamon to taste. Pro tip: A few hours before your party, pour out the necessary two cups of cranberry juice, then freeze the rest. Use that as your big ice block in the punchbowl, to prevent your concoction from getting watery as the night wears on.

Noah Hickey, Associate Multimedia Producer: This Thanksgiving I’m thankful for my parents—who have stopped at nothing to create happy and successful lives for their children—my siblings, and especially my high school sweetheart, Talia.

I am also thankful to Steve, Jonah, Adaam, and everyone else at The Dispatch. It’s been a wild ride going from someone who discovered The Remnant as a senior in high school, to an intern for the podcasting team last summer, to full-time podcast producer since May. Despite being under the hood the past year or so, The Dispatch remains an institution I deeply respect, full of endlessly talented people who are doing good work.

Alex Demas, Fact Checker: The Demas family kicks off the holiday season each year with a rollicking Thanksgiving Eve party, and, as the family’s resident cocktail enthusiast, I typically shoulder the burden of concocting a drink that captures both the vibes and flavors of the fall season. This year, I am ripping off yet another recipe from my favorite bar in the world, an elegant but innovative haunt in East London called Three Sheets. This cocktail is an elevated take on the Stone Fence—a classic drink that combines apple cider, angostura bitters, and whiskey. Because this drink isn’t served on ice, make sure the cider and soda are extra cold, and chill the glass ahead of time. 

Ingredients:

  • 1 oz bourbon
  • 0.5 oz peach liqueur
  • 0.5 oz 2:1 simple syrup (2 parts sugar to 1 part water by weight, dissolved)
  • 1 oz fresh lemon juice
  • Dash of Angostura Bitters
  • 0.25 oz egg white
  • Soda water
  • Hard cider

Shake the bourbon, peach liqueur, simple syrup, lemon, bitters, and egg white hard with ice. Fine strain over 2 oz of cold soda water, and top with 1-3 oz of cider depending on your palette.

Worth Your Time

  • Writing for Law and Liberty, historian of Christianity in the U.S. Mark Noll reviewed Jerome Copulsky’s new book, American Heretics: Religious Adversaries of Liberal Order. “The book’s subjects are individuals and groups that have championed explicitly religious grounding for, or explicitly religious alternatives to, ‘the ‘liberal’ principles of the Declaration of Independence—equality, natural rights, consent of the governed,’” Noll wrote. “If, he asks, the Bible is to guide public life, whose Bible or whose interpretation of the Bible? If God or divinely ordained natural law must be recognized as the guarantor of American rights and freedoms, will it be the God honored by sophisticated admirers of nineteenth-century popes or the God-inspiring populist evangelical acolytes of Donald Trump? If the nation officially recognized Christianity as the source of its fundamental values, could non-Christians—or even Christians of a different flavor than those in charge—possibly enjoy religious freedom or participate fully in public life? Copulsky, in other words, reprises to good effect the reasoning of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison who wanted to keep the religious-tinged bloodshed of European Christendom as far away from the new nation as possible.”

Presented Without Comment

NBC News: Matt Gaetz Is Now Giving Pep Talks and Holiday Wishes on Cameo

Also Presented Without Comment

Financial Times: Japanese Prime Minister’s Portfolio Outpaces Stock Benchmark

Japan’s prime minister Shigeru Ishiba may be flailing as a politician and a diplomat, but as an investor he is a standout who has outperformed Japan’s stock benchmark in recent years.

Ishiba’s portfolio of individual stocks is up by about 102 per cent since the start of 2020, according to analysis by Nomura Securities, far exceeding the broader Topix, which is up 60 per cent over that period.

In the Zeitgeist

NPR’s All Songs Considered released a playlist of songs for Thanksgiving, “Songs of Joy and Gratitude.” It’s a real treat, ranging from YoYo Ma’s “Simple Gifts,” to “In My Life” by the Beatles, to a song by The Mountain Goats with lyrics that we at TMD think most Americans can relate to: “I’m gonna make it through this year/if it kills me.” 

Toeing the Company Line

  • In the newsletters: Mike and Sarah explained the fate of the federal cases against Trump, and Nick weighed (🔒) in on Trump’s trade plans. 
  • On the site: Drucker reports on Elon Musk’s possible conflicts of interest, Tirzah Duren explains Section 230, and Jonah writes in defense of competence. 

Let Us Know

What are you thankful for this year?

Mary Trimble is the editor of The Morning Dispatch and is based in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the company in 2023, she interned at The Dispatch, in the political archives at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po), and at Voice of America, where she produced content for their French-language service to Africa. When not helping write The Morning Dispatch, she is probably watching classic movies, going on weekend road trips, or enjoying live music with friends.

Grayson Logue is the deputy editor of The Morning Dispatch and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the company in 2023, he worked in political risk consulting, helping advise Fortune 50 companies. He was also an assistant editor at Providence Magazine and is a graduate student at the University of Edinburgh, pursuing a Master’s degree in history. When Grayson is not helping write The Morning Dispatch, he is probably working hard to reduce the number of balls he loses on the golf course.

James P. Sutton is a Morning Dispatch Reporter, based in Washington D.C. Prior to joining the company in 2024, he most recently graduated from University of Oxford with a Master's degree in history. He has also taught high school history in suburban Philadelphia, and interned at National Review and the Foreign Policy Research Institute. When not writing for The Morning Dispatch, he is probably playing racquet sports, reading a history book, or rooting for Bay Area sports teams.

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